9 beauty rules you should follow (but probably don't.)

Image: Thinkstock. 

Let’s be real.

We’re all guilty of breaking at the occasional beauty commandment.

Maybe you’ve slept in your make up after a long night out, neglected to fix those chipped nails, or thrown some foundation on your hands and applied it to your face like it’s sunscreen.

There are some rules you can afford to break occasionally. But there are also some basic rules that you probably shouldn’t.

1. Not double cleansing your face if you wear makeup.

Cleansing your face once at night is fine, if you don’t wear any make up.

But if we’re being truthful, cleansing once is probably not enough to remove your makeup and cleanse your face.  Cleanse once to remove the face of the day, and cleanse the skin underneath. If your face is left feeling tight after cleansing, you’re probably using the wrong product for your skin type.

And please, for the love of sparkly things, remove your make up before you go to bed. Keep a packet of cleansing wipes next to your pillow if you have to. Otherwise you’re just asking for breakouts.

Here is my cleanser of choice:

2. Pulling the skin on your eyelid when applying eyeliner.

This is one I'm sure all of us are guilty of, because it's just so much easier to get a straight line!

However, the skin around your eyelids is super thin and stretches easily. Manhandling it every day by pulling and tugging while applying eyeliner is only going to invite those crows feet to settle on your face much faster than you'd like.

3. Not checking the expiry on your make up.

Makeup, just like food, has an expiry date. And did you know it's actually printed on the packaging?

Look for these symbols to tell you exactly when you should ditch the goods. 12M = 12 months.

You've probably seen these symbols a thousand times and not known what they meant. Now you do.

Keeping makeup longer than you should is not going to do you any favours. After a while, the preservatives in the formations stop working and it's basically an open invitation for bacteria to take up residence. This is NOT something you want to be smothering all over your face.

4. Not washing your makeup brushes.

This is another sure fire way to have a bacteria party on your face.

Ideally, you should be washing your brushes at least once a week. Use a speciality brush cleaner like MAC's Brush Cleanser, baby shampoo or even try making your own.

In between washes, you can spritz the brushes with rubbing alcohol decanted into a small spray bottle to kill any nasties that may be hanging out.

5. Over exfoliating your skin, or not exfoliating at all.

Believe it or not, not exfoliating your skin, and over exfoliating your skin are just as bad as each other.

Not exfoliating will lead to the build up of dead skin which can lead to congestion and break outs.

If you remove the dead skin cells, the new healthy skin cells are encouraged and you're left with a bright, luminous complexion.

On the other hand, OVER exfoliating your skin strips away valuable layers of healthy cells and reduces the skin's natural defence mechanisms. 

You should really only need to exfoliate once or twice a week. Any more and you may be left looking like Samantha post "peel" in Sex and the City.

6. Not wearing sunscreen under your makeup.

Lucky for us, a lot of makeup products now contain a level of sunscreen to keep us protected from the sun.

But unless you're reapplying your foundation every 2-3 hours (not recommended) it's best to also employ the use of a specific sunscreen to use under your makeup.

Find one that is oil free to prevent pore clogging and give it a good 30 seconds to sink in before applying foundation.

7. Not moisturising your face, even if you have oily skin.

All skin needs moisture, even skin that tends to get oily.

Daily washing strips the skin of much needed hydration, as do things like air condition and pollutants.

Find a moisturiser suitable for your skin type (think Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion for oily skin and something a little heavier like Philosophy Hope in a Jar for drier skin) and apply when the skin is still damp for maximum effect.

8. Do not squeeze your pimples and coat them in makeup

OK so probably the first thing you should take from this is DO NOT SQUEEZE YOUR PIMPLES!

I know it can be hard to resist, but squeezing pimples can lead to transfer of bacteria (which equals more pimples) and can leave you with scarring.

Secondly, if you do ignore point one, do not coat a newly squeezed pimple with makeup. This is only going to force more containments into the skin and make the situation worse.

If you have been a naughty little lamb and squeezed your spots, apply a thin coat of pimple fighting cream such as Benzac Peroxide and let the spot dry out before applying a cover up.

9. Do not use someone else's makeup, especially eyeliners and mascara.

There ain't nuthin sexy about an eye infection. Trust me. Conjunctivitis is not your friend.

To avoid a dose of the old pink eye, don't use any one else's eyeliner and mascara.

In fact, using anything like foundation, concealer, or lipstick that belongs to someone else carries a risk of infection. So unless you sterilise the items carefully with alcohol before use, stick to your own stuff.

What are some makeup rules that you live by?